“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.”
-Seneca The Younger, On The Shortness of Life
“I can always do it tomorrow”, but that’s the problem. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed and even if it was, we only have so many “tomorrows”. Life is finite and unpredictable and for all we know, we only get one go at this ride. Every minute that passes is one that you are unable to get back. Gone forever into the abyss. Every second counts.
So what exactly constitutes “wasted time”? Everyone is guilty of it, but I believe it is best defined by the individual. Your definition of wasted time is probably different than mine. A prisoner with a life sentence and a doctor are bound to define it differently. For me it is easier to define what isn’t wasted time.
Time not Wasted
- Getting physically or mentally stronger (Lifting weights, running, fasting, or any sort of self-induced suffering)
- Anything that moves you towards a personal goal (Working towards a business goal, perfecting a craft, getting better at what you do)
- Anything that increases wisdom (Reading, listening to audiobooks or podcasts, debating, learning a language)
- Any required maintenance to keep you from falling into chaos (Cleaning your house, car maintenance, you know stuff like washing your clothes and washing yourself)
- Planning and assessing (Setting goals, planning your days, assessing where you are at and what adjustments you can make)
- Recovery (Sleeping enough, ice baths, sauna)
- Spiritual time (Meditation, being in nature, reading religious texts)
- True leisure (Spending time doing things you genuinely enjoy with people you genuinely enjoy. Be very strict about this)
Even among these things, there is room for wasted time. One of the sneakiest ways of wasting time is to do things inefficiently. This gives the appearance of being busy, with not much reward in return for your “labor”. People will say they spent 4 hours studying, when really they spent 4 hours in front of a textbook but their eyes were fixed on their phone for half of that time.
| Per Day | Percent of time awake | Per Year in Hours | Per Year in Days | Days wasted over 40 Year Period |
| 10 min | 1% | 60 hrs | 2.5 Days | 101 |
| 20 min | 2% | 120 hrs | 5 Days | 202 |
| 30 min | 3.13% | 180 hrs | 7.5 Days | 304 |
| 1 hr | 6.25% | 365 Hrs | 15 Days | 608 |
| 2 hr | 12.50% | 730 hrs | 30 Days | 1216 |
| 5 hr | 31.25% | 1825 hrs | 76 Days | 3041 |
Above is a very shitty table I made showing how wasted time accumulates. Wasting 2 hours a day might not seem like a lot, but over 40 years that adds up to wasting 1,216 days (3.33 years).
(Open position for someone to make me better looking graphs)
Audit your Time
Two weeks ago I did an audit of my time and I found that I was being inefficient or outright wasting at least 2 hours a day. A lot of it was trivial things that added up, a few minutes here and there that could be trimmed.
- Take freeways instead of surface streets. I know its silly, but for years I refused to take freeways because, well I guess I was just being a pussy (Estimated time saved per day: 30 minutes)
- Video games once a week. I’m pretty good about having no addictions, but the one thing that’s always been difficult to impose self-control on is playing too much Xbox (Estimated time saved per day: 1 hour)
- Restart computer every night and increase mouse speed. I know how silly this one sounds but it definitely makes a difference for me. My computer extremely slow when I forget to restart it. As for the increased mouse speed, I recommend going into your settings and trying it yourself, might save you a couple minutes a day. (Estimated time saved per day: 10 minutes)
- Shorter showers. I spend way too much time in the shower in the morning, always grateful to have hot water. (Estimated time saved per day: 5 minutes)
- New Shipping Labels. Long story short, I use generic labels that are cheaper but take longer because I have to go through a longer process to print. (Estimated time saved per day: 20 minutes)
Bonus Time
I’d estimate that most people waste between 2-6 hours a day, every day. That’s 30-91 days a year wasted. What could you do with that much extra time? What would your life look like if you used all of that time effectively? How much more adventurous would it be? How much better would you look and feel? How smart could you be? How wealthy? Stop wasting time.
The greatest weight.– What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence – even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!”
Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus?… Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science
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